Yep all the usual reasons. Doctors are being taught that lyme disease is very rare so it's not even considered in most cases. The tests here, especially the one in Southampton, produce a high % of false negatives. Even though these tests are not reliable they are being used as if they are. On the rare occassions there's a positive result in most cases ABx are not given for long enough, then it becomes seen as post lyme disease and grouped with ME, CFS, FM, GWS, OPP etc.

The NHS ignores other chronic illnesses and tends to favour the quick cheap temporary fix approach, over worked doctors and poor funding don't help. Then we have the current emphasis on Evidence Based Medicine and NICE (national institute for clinical excellence) guidelines, which are tying good doctors' hands and means patients are only offered a limited range of treatments. Lyme disease is expensive to treat if the right long term ABx are used, so economics come into it as well.

It doesn't help that many who are Dx with chronic borreliosis/lyme had prior Dxes of CFS, FM or been told it's all in the mind; that adds to the problems because current policies, already based on misinformation, would once again be seen as ill judged.